Letter 99: Strategius has turned Procopius's house into a courtroom over horses, dice, and a missing garment.

I imagine you are very surprised that I have now begun writing letters. If you want to know the reason, Strategius is campaigning against you with words. He advances with many insults, stretches out a long accusation, and has made my house into a courtroom. Most of all, like a formidable orator, he is not satisfied with the present charges only. He mixes old things with new, stirs up ancient tales, and produces the whole city of Alexandria as a witness against you. He tells of horse spectacles, eagerness for dice, common talk about horses, and whatever else occurs to him. He says that even now you are devoted to horses, that you sit beside people who can feed them, and that you have taken up the art of flatterers in order to please your stomach. I could not say in one stretch how much he pours into my ears again and again. The cause, he says, is this: "I am naked because of him." He had one garment left for burial, and it has been spent because of you. He says, "He took worked linen, supposedly to have his own maidservants turn it into a garment, and then overlooked me, barer than Irus. A long time has passed, and I am stretched out in hopes." So if you care to make his tongue gentler and free my ears, send the garment quickly. Otherwise... I cannot bear to say what a man would say when he has made life into chatter even without a charge. If he adds justice to it, you might say that anger lives in his tongue.

Ἐπιφανίωι Οἶμαί σε ποιεῖσθαι λίαν ἐν θαύματι τί δῆτα νῦν παθὼν ἤδη καὶ γραμμάτων κατάρχομαι. τούτου δὲ τὴν αἰτίαν εἰ βούλει μαθεῖν, Στρατήγιος τοῖς λόγοις στρατεύεται κατὰ σοῦ, καὶ πολὺς μὲν ταῖς λοιδορίαις χωρεῖ, μακρὰν δὲ κατατείνει κατηγορίαν, καὶ δικαστήριόν μοι τὴν οἰκίαν πεποίηται. τὸ δὲ μέγιστον, ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ δεινοὶ τῶν ῥητόρων, οὐκ ἀρκεῖται τοῖς παροῦσι μόνον ἐγκλήμασιν, ἀλλὰ μίγνυσι παλαιὰ καινοῖς, καὶ μύθους ἀρχαίους ἀνακινεῖ, καὶ μάρτυρα κατὰ σοῦ πόλιν ὅλην τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου παρέχεται, θέας ἱππικὰς διηγούμενος καὶ κύβων σπουδὴν καὶ διαλόγους περὶ τῶν ἵππων δημοτικοὺς καὶ ἅττ' ἄν ποτε τούτῳ λέγειν ἐπέλθῃ. ἀλλὰ καὶ νῦν σε τοῖς ἵπποις ἀνακεῖσθαί φησι καὶ τοῖς τρέφειν δυναμένοις παρεδρεύειν ἀεὶ καὶ τέχνην σε κολάκων ἐπανῃρῆσθαι τῇ γαστρὶ χαριζόμενον. οὐκ ἂν δυναί μην εἰς ἅπαξ εἰπεῖν ὅσα δὴ πολλάκις ταῖς ἐμαῖς ἀκοαῖς ἐπαντλεῖ. τὸ δὲ αἴτιον "γυμνός" φησι "τὸ τούτου μέρος ἐγώ". ἓν μόνον μοι ἱμάτιον ὑπελείπετο πρὸς ταφήν, καὶ διὰ τοῦτον ἀνάλωται. λίνον γάρ φησιν "εἰργασμένον λαβών, ὡς δὴ χερσὶ τῶν αὑτοῦ θεραπαινίδων ἀποδείξων ἱμάτιον, Ἴρου με παρεῖδε γυμνότερον· χρόνος πολύς" φησι "καὶ παρατέ ταμαι ταῖς ἐλπίσιν". εἰ τοίνυν σοι μέλει τὴν ἐκείνου γλῶτταν πραοτέραν ἐργάσασθαι, καὶ τὰς ἐμὰς ἐλευθεροῦν ἀκοάς, ὡς τάχος πέμπε θοιμάτιον. εἰ δὲ μή ... ἀλλ' οὐ φέρω λέγειν ὅσα καὶ λέξειεν ὃς καὶ μηδὲν ἔχων ἐγκαλεῖν φλυαρίαν τὸν βίον πεποίηται. εἰ δὲ καὶ προσλάβοι τι δίκαιον, εἴποις ἂν αὐτοῦ τῇ γλώττῃ τὸν θυμὸν ἐνοικεῖν.